The Sociocultural Orientations of Schoolteachers

Abstract

An important area in the present-day sociology of education is the study of schoolteachers as a social and professional group. This problem has been studied in a comprehensive and systematic manner in our region over the span of a number of years [see 1-5]. For example, in 1998-99 a survey was carried out under the supervision of the author, "Characteristics of the Sociocultural Orientations of the Schoolteachers of Nizhnii Tagil." The results obtained are comparable to the findings of similar surveys that the author conducted earlier; this makes it possible to determine a number of characteristics of the self-awareness [samosoznanie] of schoolteachers as a social community, using this major industrial center as an example. A total 412 schoolteachers in Nizhnii Tagil were surveyed in a multistage quota representative sample. The total number of respondents included 8 percent men and 92 percent women. The age distribution was as follows: under twenty-five, 13 percent; twenty-five to thirty, 28 percent; thirty-one to forty, 40 percent; forty-one to fifty, 11 percent; over fifty, 8 percent. The distribution of time in service: fewer than five years, 21 percent; five to ten years, 27 percent; eleven to twenty years, 32 percent; more than twenty years, 20 percent. The distribution in terms of specialty: teachers in primary school, 14 percent; teachers of humanities, 18 percent; teachers of disciplines in physics and mathematics, 11 percent; chemistry and biology, 13 percent; teachers of disciplines in the arts and esthetics, 7 percent; teachers of foreign languages, 10 percent; teachers of labor, 8 percent; and teachers of other disciplines, 6 percent. The survey comprised teachers in both conventional school institutions and in educational institutions that have the status of a lyceum or a gymnasium.